Dronut X1

Drones have become such commonplace things these days that almost all of us either own one or know somebody who does. Most of them have a fairly common form factor. Four or six arms with four or six motors, each with a propeller on top. This one, though, looks like something right out of a Jedi training camp.

This curious-looking drone from Boston-based Cleo Robotics is called the Dronut and it’s the worlds first bi-rotor ducted fan drone. They say it’s the smallest in its class, using their patented thrust vectoring technology. And with no exposed propellers, they say it can “safely fly where no other drone has flown before” (ok, now it’s sounding more like Star Trek than Star Wars).